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Friday, 3 August 2012

Things I've done lately that aren't cake.

Hellaaaaire!

Well it's been a VERY long time! I haven't been nearly as productive as usual in the last few weeks. a combo of more people at home and more shifts at work have meant either my mind has been somewhere else.. or i have.

However! I have got a few little things to show you.

Most of these things have been presents. I decided to make presents for all my teachers as opposed to the boring bottle of wine option.. it just seems a little more heartfelt. I am, however, on one of the narrowest shoestrings of all time (think those posh brogues you can buy in Oxford with little holes in them, rather than Vans) so I had to work pretty much with what I already had at home.

The first gift was a bracelet for one of my RS teachers, Ms. Salak, who is a bit of a hippy. She's all arty and world culture-y so i thought she'd like some bright colours.

Not particularly ground breaking, just some bright beads and buttons on stretchy elastic.

This next one was for my Mechanics teacher. She's a lovely lady with very good taste and dress sense. She goes for a lot of greeny glassy stuff so I thought simple and elegant was the key.

see? I wasn't lying about my hands.

Here they are ready for presentation. I hope they like them :)

I have 2 English teachers, both of equal magnificence. As previous blogs have suggested, English classes on Fridays mean 'Cake Days' so I thought a cup of tea and a slice of cake was symbolic.

Obviously you can't wrap a slice of cake, so I went for the cup of tea instead.

A little of the ol' ceramic paints on mugs bought from the amazing Wilko.

I did put her name on it too but I don't have a picture of that because I had to do it a full week after I finished the rest of the mug. This was because I didn't actually know her name!! she's been 'Ms. Gregory' since year 7 and, although I knew it began with a Y, I didn't know if it was Yvonne, Yvette etc. so i had to phone the school and ask!! they thought I was a bit weird... but they probably thought that already anyway.

Mrs. Salkeld's mug was bedecked with Snakeshead Fritillaries, one of my favourite flowers. I remember one BAD moment when I unwittingly harvested our entire spring's crop of fritillaries for a guest bedroom JUST after they came out for the first time. My mother was NOT impressed as she'd spent a bundle on them and had been eagerly awaiting their appearance all spring. oops.

This next one I'm particularly proud of. I took a photo in france last summer of the tabac sign outside our favourite bakery. It's so quintessentially french and pleasing in it's bright-redness... and i have a thing for lanterns, so it was a photo close to my heart. I attempted to reproduce it as best I could and this is the result.

Below is the original. Probably not a wise move to put them side by side but I shall sacrifice my vanity for your sakes.

That painting was sort of a follow up to one I completed aaaaaaaages ago. I started painting a great picture of a french Metro sign about 5 years ago and didn't pick it up again (too daunted by its complexity) until I was under house arrest in hospital with literally NOTHING else to do. It then became a bit of a labour of love which I finished after I'd come out (of hosp.. not the closet) and gave to Loll as she'd been giving me not so subtle hints that she'd like it for a while. I wrapped it up in the left over wall paper from my bedroom (blue and white stripes, very distinctive) and whacked a huge bow on it, as that makes everything better, and got Tim, my mother's wonderful boyfriend (seen in this post) sneakily delivered it to the lodge at Lincoln College (her college) so that when she next went back through the lodge she saw my familiar wall paper and and knew the large present was for her.

This is the painting today. She's no longer a Lincoln girl so it's back at Danish Perch whilst she's in transit between abodes.

Another gift for Loll was this box.

I painted this one in hospital too. It's just a box file but the addition of the blossom makes it ever so pleasing.

Finally we have the pièce de resistance. This final painting is for Mr. Abbotts. My appropriately named RS teacher. It was to his class that I brought the Easter cake, you may remember.

Mr Abbotts is... beyond amazing. He is the reason why I'm doing Philosophy and Theology at uni. He could not be more dedicated or brilliant at his job and I worship him, and not in a small way.

He is, in fact, Ms Salak's husband so is equally prone to the hippy lifestyle. He ADORES anything amethyst or beady and has long wavy locks and would probably wear tie-dye if it were allowed at school. His speciality is in Eastern religions, especially Buddhism, especially Tibetan Buddhism. That is what led me to paint Tibetan prayer flags for him.

I don't know if I've mentioned this already but I have a massive love of prayer flags. The idea is that, because they are inscribed with prayers, when the wind blows them the words of the prayers are blown around the country and can be spread to everyone. I saw some spectacular prayer flags strung up in the mountains of Dharamsala went i went to India (a school trip masterminded by Mr Abbotts) and the following picture (of my taking) inspired the painting below.

I finished it THE DAY AFTER term finished. Meaning it is still waiting to be given to him. I won't lie, I'm looking forward to it.